For ticks if you spray shoes only with the strongest type sprays and leave them outside, you can avoid ticks and not get the DEET on your skin. Also wearing white socks helps. Right after a walk in the woods or gardening, it’s best to shower with a facecloth ( will remove most ticks before they attach) and throw your clothes directly in the washer ( else they can crawl around). Pets are a problem. Don’t let them on fabric couches or share your blankets. We live in tick central and Lyme disease is more pervasive and debilitating than some people realize. Also, there are multiple types of tick borne illnesses. Joy.
Kids don’t realize this and will pick up ticks if they play sports in NE. It can be really bad some years depending on the weather. Tell your kids to be careful about sitting on the grass. Also, they should know the symptoms of lyme and get hardy antibiotics (2 weeks minimum) if they test positive.
Ok, I am back from summer hiatus and I am now feeling nauseous. Not necessarily from the tick conversation, although it is titillating. No, it is actually from the overstuffed/haphazardly overflowing suitcase sitting on the bed. Tonight is the last night DS will spend at home until Thanksgiving. Last year at this time, we were loading up a rental car full of various and sundry items to trek across the country to his new school and new dorm. Although I was sad, excitement prevailed as this was a new journey he had worked so hard to attain. I had not yet felt the loss of his presence or the emptiness of his room, his seat at the table, his voice in the daily banter and conversation.
Well, I feel it now. I now know how much my heart will ache, how drab the daily routine will be, how much I will stare at my phone and will it to ring just for a few minutes of hearing that sweet, but manly voice that is such a part of who I am & who I’ve become. Forgive me for being a bit upset because no one told me that it would be harder the second time around! And it is…it is much harder.
Thank you for listening and always being supportive, my CC family. I have to dry my eyes now, put on that smile and go help him rearrange his belongings so they will once again fit into that suitcase. I know he’s going to have a great year and continue to amaze me with his accomplishments. But I also know how much my heart will ache when he’s gone. :((
@buuzn03 I have always wondered why I cried more after dropoff in later years… you have hit the nail on the head for me. Good luck to you this year. Part of the reason I stick around on CC is for just such “conversation” and support.
@buuzn03 , it keeps getting harder. You now know what’s in store for you, and each time you do this, you are that much closer to the adult stage that makes it “my old room” rather than “my room”. Huge hugs to you.
Not sure why nobody ever told us that if we did our job really really well, it’d be so sad! A friend assured me that the relationship would evolve and become richer, and I think she was right. But I, like you, feel very blue every time we say goodbye.
@gardenstategal I think you touched another point-our relationship has gotten stronger and richer. And because of that, it compounds the difficulty of the absence! Ugh. I did not want to adult anymore!!!
For Chimneykid1 her senior year at BS was the first drop off that I cried - it does not get easier for sure! I am in the car now after dropping off Chimneykid2 for her junior year (She’s an RA) and I confess I am glad this is not her first rodeo because, of course, her room is a 4th floor walkup with no AC and it’s 95 degrees outside. Some public schools in the area have closed due to the heat. Had no desire to stick around to make her bed! Good luck to everyone at drop offs this week. Feel free to join me on the deck at wine o’clock!
Same goes for teh mid-atlantic states.
Daily tick checks are important! DS had a misstep this summer and ended up with a handful of ticks on him - thankfully he found them before they attached themselves.
In other news…DS’s dorm room is huge! He may never come back home.
I hear ya, @buuzn03. These several days are hard on BS parents.
Look what I found from awhile ago: %-(
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21185874#Comment_21185874
Hope that cheered you up some?? XOXOXO
But @GoatMama I TOLD you it was NOT acceptable to tell me it got harder!!! 
[-( %-(
You guys… you’re scaring all the newbie BS parents! 
And this was the hardest drop-off yet for me, too. 
And CameoKid is a college sophomore now!
I look at the menu but always order the same thing anyway…
PSA Attention all newbies! You wil soon learn that I am crazy and senile, so take any of my comments with a grain of salt!!!
Pretty sure I told you:
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/21670017#Comment_21670017
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/20637104#Comment_20637104
http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/14879417/#Comment_14879417
I have anticipatory grief and anxiety @ drop off, so I changed my photo to Adam Scott!! I find that looking at a good golfer is soothing >:) …I am buying the first round next week if anyone wants to meet up in NE!
@ChoatieMom first-I think I not participated/viewed one of those threads
Second - please see my PSA above
Third- if you do not quite believe said PSA, then %-( That’s my story and I’m sticking to it!
On a serious note, though, I thought I had pulled myself together and was doing ok until the goodbyes and he hugged a lot tighter and held on for much longer. Sigh.
Getting ready for my 19th dorm move in next week 14 of which will have been at PEA , and our final one at PEA as our youngest is a senior. I can’t really say it gets easier- just more routine. All the BS moveins have definitely made it easier for the college ones- on us and them. Although, it is still bittersweet each time.
Because I moved to be close to PEA, dorm drop offs now mean something very different then when we lived out west for our older kids drop offs. Good luck to all the parents saying goodbye to their kiddos this school year.
@vegas1 In my experience, the closer you live, the more stuff gets taken to school. We’ve had to take 2 cars in the past. Granted, some stuff was items we stored for other students over the summer.
Since getting back from both of my kids’ college move-ins, I’ve been haunted by this song by LCD Soundsystem:
https://youtu.be/mrc1zGEPPmg